The Global Business Environment - Essay Example

The more we learn about culture, the greater our understanding of global consumerism Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 6 References 7 Introduction Global business environment is becoming highly competitive as several leading organizations are trying to capitalize on the potential business opportunities that have been developed due to the globalization. After the Second World War several organizations started to expand their business operation practices in several international market places through the introduction of globalization in order to increase market share and develop a potential client base across the globe. Therefore, it has become important for the organizations to learnt different cultural aspects to understand global consumerism. The essay will include the application of marketing semiotics as an important tool to understand the global retail market. Discussion Marketing semiotics can be considered as one of the useful tools that are applied in the global consumerism research work. It generally works at the marketing science’s cutting edge. The concept of marketing semiotics has been evolved within the discipline of consumer and marketing research. Now-a-days, consumers around the globe expect high quality products and effective customer service from the organizations against their paid money. On the other hand, it is quite difficult for a multinational organization to develop unique marketing and business operation plan for different countries as the cultural background of people used to differ from a country to another country. On the other hand, different cultural background of consumers around the globe results different types of consumer behaviour. It is true that consumer behaviour of a country used to depend upon several external environmental factors. Social trend, economic environment and cultural background of people in a country decide the consumer behaviour. However, it is important for the multinational organizations to conduct valuable marketing research in order to determine the consumer behaviour of people in a particular country. Consumer buying behaviour can be considered as one of the important aspects that can determine the acceptance level of a particular product and service. Consumer buying behaviour used to differ from a country to another country. First of all, it is important for the management of several leading multinational organizations to understand the concept of brand literacy rate across the globe before conducting a market research to determine the consumer behaviour of people. High brand literacy can help an organization to reduce the promotional and advertising cost. On the other hand, low brand literacy rate is not good for a firm that is intending to expand its business practices in the foreign markets. It is important for the organizations to develop a potential marketing communication process among the consumers and organization itself. Aggressive promotional strategy can help an organization to create significant brand awareness in the minds of target customers in case of low brand literacy. It has been identified that several organization organizations are facing difficulties in emerging market places due to growing tension between the brands and consumers. Therefore, it is important for the organizations to understand each and every aspect of the culture and social trend in order to maintain significant business performances in the emerging markets. Semiotics can be defined as the study of symbols and signs and their interpretation or utilization. The meaning of semiotics can be divided into three parts, such as sign, experience and meaning construction. Time, place and physical appearances can be considered as the major drivers in the semiotics process (Oswald, 2012, p.19). Therefore, it is highly important for the organizations to utilize the semiotics process in the business operation strategies as an important tool in the consumer researcher regarding identification of global consumerism in global retail market. Global retail market is becoming highly competitive as well as saturated as several potential multinational and domestic players are operating within this industry. It is highly difficult for the organizations within the global retail industry to develop business and marketing plan for the people of different cultural background. However, the organizations have to maintain these aspects in the business operation process starting from product development strategy to the after sales customers following up process. There are limited amount of research works on semiotics and pricing. But, it is highly important for the management of several organizations to consider semiotics in the pricing strategy of products and services in different situations. It is true that consumer buying behaviour of people effectively depends upon the economic environment of country. In addition to this, cultural differences between the countries force the organizations to adopt and implement different types of product development, pricing, placement and promotional strategy. Use of appropriate signs in the advertising according to the cultural background of consumers within the country can help an organization to create significant brand awareness among the target customers (Huffman, 2003, p.15). In addition to this, it is highly essential for the management of the organizations within the global retail industry to observe and understand about the consumers’ interaction process with the products and services in different places in order to identify the different meanings that come out through the consumption process of consumers in different global market places. Consumption signs of customers used to differ from a country to another. Therefore, the management of the organizations within the global retail market place to identify and understand the consumption characteristics of consumers through the gestures and signs (Brunn, 2006, p.29). Effective application of the semiotics process in the consumer and marketing research can be considered as an instrumental tool in observing and understanding the buying behaviours of consumers and the intension of the consumers of different global areas with respect to the global retail market place. Conclusion It is clear from above discussion that the mult6inational retail organizations should conduct effective market research in different countries before adopting business diversification of expansion strategy in the business operation processes in order to determine the consumer behaviour of a particular country. However, consumer behaviour of people within a country can be understood through the realization of consumption signs and interaction. It is the responsibility of the organizations to avail the ability to understand the characteristics of consumer buying behaviour in a particular country. Therefore, adoption of semiotics tool in the global market and consumer research can help the global retail organizations to understand several aspects about global consumerism. References Brunn, S., 2006. Wal-Mart World. London: Taylor & Francis. Huffman, C., 2003. The Why of Consumption. New York: Psychology Press. Oswald, L., 2012. Marketing Semiotics. 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